Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions: Essays in Comparative Religion

160 Pages·1978·8.782 MB·English

by  Mircea Eliade

OCCULTISM,
WITCHCRAF7;
and
ceULTURAL
YA§HIONS
Mircea
Eliade
The University
of Chicago Press
Chicago
and London
OCCULTISM,
WITCHCRAFT,
and
ceULTURAL
Tl\§HIONS
Essays in Comparative Religions
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1976 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1976
Paperback edition 1978
Printed in the United States of America
0100 99 98 97 9695 89 IO II
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Eliade, Mircea, 1907-
Occultism, witchcraft, and cultural fashions.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Religions - History. 2. Occult sciences.
1. Title.
BL80.2.E43 291 75-12230
ISBN 0-226-20392-1 (paperback)
To Giuseppe Tucci
In memory of our
discussions in
Calcutta, 1929-1931

Contents
Preface ix
1 Cultural Fashions and History of Religions
2 The World, the City, the House 18
3 Mythologies of Death: An Introduction 32
4 The Occult and the Modern World 47
5 Some Observations on European Witchcraft 69
6 Spirit, Light, and Seed 93
Notes 120
Index 143

Preface
At a certain moment in his old age, a prolific author is bound to
discover that many of his most cherished projected books remain
unwritten. I do not know how others react to such a disquieting
discovery, but, speaking for myself, it was with a melancholic
resignation that I decided to abandon a number of works that were
drafted and partially written over the past twenty-five years. As
usually happens, however, I have from time to time made use of
these notes and materials in the preparation of public lectures,
addresses, and journal articles. Of course, such occasional essays
do not sum up the results of long years of research, nor do they
always present the many aspects of the topic under consideration in
a consistent fashion. But they do have the advantage that, having
been prepared for audiences largely composed of nonspecialists,
they are accessible to any intelligent reader. All the risks involved
in any attempt at "popularization" notwithstanding, this advantage
must not be disregarded. In the last analysis, the scholar's only
innocent ambition is to be read outside his own community of
learning. For many reasons, which I have tried to discuss in some
of my earlier publications, this ambition ought particularly to be
encouraged among students in the discipline of history of religions.
I have thus selected the materials included in the present volume
from several dozen lectures and articles written over the past ten
years. All of them are, directly or indirectly, related to projected
major works. Most of these essays have an introductory character;